Unsanctioned injection site sets up in Galt Gardens
By Lethbridge Herald on September 26, 2020.
Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Jason Luan said the Alberta government provides a legal, sanctioned overdose prevention site, shown here next to the Lethbridge Shelter, a block away from the illegal site, with adequate capacity for the community. Herald file photo by Ian Martens @IMartensHeraldLethbridge Herald
An unapproved and unsanctioned drug injection site was set up Friday night in Galt Gardens.
The site is being operated by the newly-formed Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society and has been set up three weeks after the province stopped funding for ARCHES in Lethbridge.
According to a story by the CBC, four people used the tent to inject drugs Friday night with no overdoses and no police interaction. The plan is to set up a temporary tent each night for a couple of hours.
Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Jason Luan spoke against the drug injection site.
“Alberta’s government provides a legal, sanctioned overdose prevention site a block away from this location, with adequate capacity for the community.
“This illegal site contravenes the Criminal Code of Canada and we expect the City of Lethbridge and the Lethbridge Police Service to enforce the law. We would refer your questions to the Mayor of Lethbridge’s Office for matters that pertain to local law enforcement issues.”
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The lawlessness of this is appalling! UNBLIEVABLE!
Criminal charges should be immediately undertaken. This is nothing more than the equivalent of giving AHS and the current government the big finger. Further are they using some of the 1.6 million missing. Do they have a business licence. Is the Galt zoned for drug distribution. There is a whole number of reasons there should be charges. LCP need to get on it quick. Where does council stand on this? What is the opinion and position of the “socialist six”. Who are these people, name them.
People are using in GG and have been for round about 20 years or so when meth first struck.
This isn’t in any way a new thing. The park is intended as a public space to relax and play etc. For that reason the cops may intervene.
That being said, it’s a tent of volunteers monitoring people so they don’t overdose. With or without it there nothing short of closing galt gardens to the public is going to stop the drug use.
…and if they close it the users will just go hang out somewhere else. When you have 400+ chronically homeless people there has to be somewhere for them to go. Alpha House (the shelter) doesn’t permit people to hang around outside because too many overdoses were happening when the SCS closed.
So they went to the park. Seriously, before beaking off online, go find out what is going on downtown for yourself. Go on a SAGE Clan patrol. Go see it first hand.
People make up numbers and all kinds of BS to justify their position without ever setting foot on the ground to see what happens down there.
“because I’m scared, it’s dangerous!”
lol
spineless cowards.
Clearly after seeing the SCS misappropriate, inflate stats, report disinformation the public (the taxpayer), stand before Council and refuse to answer some important questions while giving them disinformation, the trend continues to slowly kill addicts by supplying all the paraphernalia they need to take their poisons and offer no treatment!
The citizens of the city has watched over $30 million of their taxes burned up in the last 3 years from the SCS, while many businesses in the area lost their livelihood and while Council spends millions revitalizing downtown they allow it to be over-run by addicts, hookers and drug dealers who now think they own Galt Gardens and downtown.
This would not be allowed in Standoff or Brocket, yet we allow it here?
There will be a war if police do not do their jobs and this city stand up for it’s citizens and the taxpayers instead of the 150 addicts that are the ‘tail now wagging the dog’ . . . where is our leadership?
vigilante: – – –
a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate.
Arrest them for operating without required Health Canada Exemption 56.1.
In Canada, possession of controlled substances is prohibited under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA).
To operate a SCS for medical purposes in Canada, an exemption under section 56.1 of the Act is necessary.
The first site opened in Vancouver DTES in 2003 . . . 17 years later and billions of dollars burned, the numbers of fatal overdoses continue to rise, the numbers of addicts continue to rise, crime and homelessness continue to rise and this ‘cancer’ is now spreading throughout BC . . . nothing more needs to be said, it is a failure that has killed thousands of young lives . . . murdered them under the guise of ‘healthcare’.
Someone needs to be held accountable! Arrest them all and set an example and remove them all from the park and the streets in this city that the citizens who pay taxes can no longer feel safe on.
It is time for police, crown and Council to either show some respect for the citizens of this city and stop this madness, or step down and let someone with can do the job takeover!
If they don’t . . . the people will after hearing several conversations of anger!
It doesn’t sound like Grampies’ Winnebago is providing “adequate capacity for the community.”
Who is paying for the gas for that thing, anyway?
It is handling the capacity very well now that the “capacity” has been reduced to a realistic non-inflated number. Worried about gas and not concerned with the 1.6 million in unaccounted funds.
Gee, I thought you all believed that shutting the SCS would cure addiction. But now that the government has decided to treat people in the back seat of an Edsel, everyone is okay.
As for the gas money … here’s the joke: a gal offers a guy a million dollars for a roll in the hay. The guy is willing. She then offers a dollar. The guy says ‘what do you think I am?’. The gal says ‘we’ve established what you are, we’re just negotiating the price.’
You as usual thought wrong. Until rehab is court mandated the rest is just fluff and arguing points. Giving people a place to shoot up is not help, it is demeaning. Public view, in and out of the site.